Maybe it's rosy lenses, but sometimes it feels like 90s basketball was more just guys going out there and doing whatever, almost like streetballing, for 48 minutes and then just mad talking shit and the like. That stuff doesn't happen anymore. Players have to wear shorts of a certain length, have to act respectful to one another (no more shit talking), and play, while flashy at time, with almost robotic fundamentals. I'm not saying basketball is less exciting nowadays, because it's not, it just feels more like watching someone "work" than watching someone play a game.

tl;dr I'm bad at words, 90s basketball had a certain feel to it that todays game seems to be missing.

edit: okay, "free" was a bad word. I guess I wanted to say it felt different, more aggressive than todays basketball. Apologies. Thanks for responses.

It's true. Players back then were just themselves. They didn't care about what some blogger had to say about their supposed "lack of respect for the game". They did everything they could to win without worrying about the public's perception of them. Part of it is because players are concerned with getting sponsored or something, and companies don't want them messing with their image.

I honestly think that's why players just seemed so much more..."open" back then. There was a LOT of money in basketball, but it doesn't approach the ridiculous levels of wealth made today. So a lot of players came in simply for the absolute love of the game. This led to some incredibly heated playoff series.

And it's also an issue with the fans. They make such a big deal about "classiness" and "humility". Well, shit, how can you expect players to really show personality without them actually treading into arrogance and showmanship? If fans had that much of a fixation on such attributes in the 80s/90s, we wouldn't have had such great memories of players like Larry Bird or Charles Barkley.

I live in New York, and have been watching the Knicks since I was a boy, so I'm going to use them as an example. The Knicks arena, MSG, used to be a fucking warzone in the playoffs. This may come off as a laughable cliche, but the crowd really was the sixth man of the team. They didn't care who came in. They would make the visitors time there a living hell. It was an extension of the Riley Knicks attitude of, "Fuck you, we're in it to win by any means necessary,"...the crowd fed off that, and fucking loved that team. What they lacked in skill/talent, they made up with heart. Contrast that with how they serenaded Kobe Bryant in a game a few years back. I've heard Knick fans say that that was the most shameful moment in Knicks history. Simply for the crowd reaction.

That's what we're missing with today's NBA. We're missing the personalities, the character, the honesty...Mostly because our culture of expecting these men to be "perfect role models", even though they're men just like you and me.

You can't really talk about 90s basketball without mentioning Jordan. Most Americans knew Jordan as the humble, approachable guy on the Wheaties box. In truth, he was egotistical, mean, and had a serious gambling problem.

We all love the movie Space Jam but the character that Jordan played in that movie was as real as Bugs Bunny.

Yes, but there was more to 80s/90s basketball than Jordan (I don't think people were as ignorant to his character as you think--the Jordan Rules was a VERY popular book). I was thinking more in line with guys like Barkley, Rodman, the Fab Five, the entirety of the Knicks/Heat teams, the Pistons, Miller (I mean, he gestured to Spike Lee to suck his dick in front of thousands of people, and nobody went up in arms about how he's a terrible person), and to some extent Larry Bird.

Mind you, I haven't said anything about the QUALITY of play. I think that the NBA is just as skilled now as it was back then. Some people, like me, just get tired over this big deal made over humility.

NBA as a distant media spectacle is entirely Jordan's fault. No one promoted himself, hustled reporters, or worked PR like he did. 90s bulls were the Beatles. His image is on the number one basketball brand since the Reagan Administration. That you cited a jordan playoff as your video example falls in line with this PR to your childhood nostalgia.

I honestly can't think of a champion superstar the last 5 years who didn't win for an unstoppable hunger to win. The 2012 ECF Game 6 was a masterpiece by a great talent who just wanted to beat his enemy into submission. You could say it was Jordan-esque.

That you cited a jordan playoff as your video example falls in line with this PR to your childhood nostalgia.

I actually wanted to bring attention to how the BULLS and the KNICKS battled each other. They were VERY intense games. It had nothing to do with any specific player. I could have used the Knicks/Heat, Pistons/Celtics, Celtics/Sixers.

I didn't imply that there aren't players who care as much as players in the past. More like they weren't afraid to show that they cared.

Of course the Knicks "battled," they barely had an offense so they relegated themselves to slog-down hit-em defense which thankfully can't be done anymore. It was bad basketball and led to the ugly Knicks-Heat rivalry where both teams averaged less than 90 points for 3 straight playoff series 1997-1999.

Yep. It wasn't pretty basketball. But it was entertaining as hell to me.

Once again, I haven't said anything about the quality of play. I'm talking about the overall intensity of games, and openness of players to express themselves (Hence why I linked to that specific part of the video that included interviews and trash talking).

I've never had a problem with that Kobe moment. Dude scored 61 masterfull points, most ever at the Garden. Not to mention the Knicks were in the midst of having their 7th or 8th consecutive losing season. That same season a Knick fan threw his jersey on the court in frustration in Boston.
MSG is the best arena becuase of the fans. It still gets electric in there

Yeah since the Malice in the Palace. Stern has suppressed a lot of the culture that the inner city brought to basketball first and foremost with the dress code which I believe Iverson, Pierce and a couple others all condemned because it targeted clothing that mostly black players would wear when they weren't playing or before the game etc. It was a lot more marketable back then I think to just let that competition go as it built up into rivalries and to be honest the on court fights when they happened were fun to watch because it meant both teams cared about the game. I'm gonna lay some blame on the perception of "casual fan" experience by the NBA. It's been a big marketing strategy of lots of entertainment industries to market to casual fans thinking they needed bigger audiences but what a lot of them miss is that it's not the casual fans who are going to buy the expensive items and all the marketing, it's the hardcore fans. Besides this they've changed their product in such a way that the game resembles the old game but it doesn't have the same flow and pace and that's partially the play styles and playing but also the obsessive officiating and control over the product. Also, way too much time spent branding NBA players. They used to brand NBA players in the 90's too but you could have an edge or be a "bad-boy" think of those "I am not a role model" commercials that Barkley did. One of my favorite players to watch is Dennis Rodman in old replays. The amount of heart and tenacity that he played with and he might have been immature sometimes and that time he stomped the cameraman in the balls was completely uncalled for but he genuinely loved playing basketball and he took pride in rebounding and guarding the best player on the opposing team every night.

You are talking about two different issues. One is regulating behavior on and off the court, and although trash talking still happens behavior has been regulated. Stern is notorious for it, but many people welcome it, especially after the Malice in the Palace. I should note that such regulations began in the 1990s, with penalties for flagrant fouls, fighting, and leaving the bench during a fight increased.

The other is the style of play, streetballing versus robotic fundamentals, as you put it. There are fewer isolation plays now than in the 90s, in part because of rule changes and in part because of innovations in defense. The rule changes now allow zone defense rather than requiring man-to-man. And as an assistant coach with the Celtics Tom Thibodeau discovered how to overload the side of the court with the ball, and force the ball handler into long, soft passes that allow the defense to recover when the ball is reversed. And now that type of defense has spread through the league.

However, the new rules and defenses reward team play and crisp passes and offenses that get everyone involved, so again, some people do not miss the constant isos of the 90s. And I should note that the most successful team of the 90s, the Chicago Bulls, used the triangle offense, which attempted to get away from constant isos by Jordan and emphasize movement and passing.

Exactly, they personify the type of attitude that existed in the 90's. You had to earn yours. LeBron is stuck somewhere between being happy-go-lucky sometimes and wanting to kill you other times. But most of the new players are just happy to be there, and want to have fun and losing doesn't bother them as much as long as they are getting their max contracts.

Back then players didn't move around to different teams quite as much, so you developed intense hatred and rivalries. They weren't thinking "Gee, I might have to play with these guys next season" quite as much as current players do.

So you end up with more happy-go-lucky Dwight Howards and less intensity. Everyone is friends. Still a few 90's holdouts like Kobe Bryant who hates everyone, even his own teammates.

The whole Larry vs Magic thing was overplayed. Both of them had said that before they became friends they were basically as ambivalent about the other as possible. There was no intense hatred, the only time they ever even though about the other was when the game was on and when the buzzer sounded they forgot about it.

I'd say you're exaggerating quite a lot. Sure, I can think of some players that only care about getting paid, like Dwight (he was different in Orlando though), but you can't tell me guys like Kobe, Lebron, Garnett, Duncan, etc. don't want to win.

He's always been like that and he likely wants both. Kobe's always been a volume scorer. It's not like I know Kobe personally or anything, but seeing him play over the years, it seems to me like he values a championship over a scoring title.

I dunno, seems like his ego is too big to accept that it might be a good idea to let one of the greatest shooters of all time take a few moe shots per game in order that the offense is more balanced. E.g. When he comes out to the media complaining about how he needs more help on offense. He was saying he wants his team to set better picks for him and get him more open shots - what he needs is to give up some attempts so more people can score and so that he expends less energy on offense. But his ego is too big to accept that reality.

What do you supposed he does? Stop playing the game he loves the way he's played it for 17 years? When he's already won 5 rings playing that way and he can still do it? Other than his off the ball defense, Kobe is in no other way responsible for the Lakers struggles.

The main difference is that Kobe can no longer score when he wants to and his shots are very low % attempts which look amazing when he hits, but he hits them at a low rate. In the past, he could always drive and get the basket he needed, which kept defenses honest. Now he has to depend on his jumper and the refs bailing him out a lot more.

Kobe, Garnett, Duncan and to a lesser extent LeBron are from the old guard. LeBron also had a lot to prove when he signed his $90 million Nike contract at age 18 before ever playing in the NBA. That turned out to be good, but he has a serious work ethic as evidenced by the shape he keeps himself in.

Players nowaday are out-of-shape, never work on their game, just show up and play sloppy ball. Can't run a play to save their lives. There's a much bigger disparity between the few players who put in effort and the majority who don't. In the 90's, the talent level was much closer (and the bottom was much higher than it is today), and the best players were truly great.

Umm I feel like you have no idea what you're talking about. 1) every team runs plays. 2) there were some fucking terrible teams in the 90s. From my childhood, I remember the nuggets sucking for much of the 90s, as well as the hawks. (Edit: forgot mavs) 3) a majority of players are role players. The competition to be the 8th-12th man on the roster for every team is incredibly intense. These are the guys who unlike people like LeBron and Durant (who certainly also work hard on their games) don't have ridiculous natural talent and have to work incredibly hard on their games just to stay in the league. The nba is the premier basketball league in the world - with so many old washed up former stars playing abroad and so many other guys who want to be in the NBA but for various reasons can't make it playing in Europe and Asia as well, I don't see how you can argue the nba is any less competitive (to be in the league) than it ever was. In fact, it seems its at least as competitive as it always has been. I.e. in case you're not following me - a majority of players in the league have to work incredibly hard just to stay in the league.

As far as players in the 90s being in better shape - not sure where that's coming from. Robert tractor traylor much? With absolute freaks like LeBron and Dwight (and even seeing how much better shape zbo is in now than 5 years ago), I'm not sure what examples you're relying on to suggest players today are in worse shape than players from the 90s. Actually, I have no idea what sport/league you've been watching to inspire any of your ideas. I feel like we most likely are watching 2 entirely different leagues.